The police have blamed the about turn on a crowd estimate of the Kuala Lumpur rally today from 80,000 to half the number, to a miscalculation due to double-counting.

NONEThe miscalculation led to the police having to revise their crowd estimates in the official policeFacebook page, said Dang Wangi police chief Zainuddin Ahmad (right).

“Owing to the crowds that were coming from many directions, the 80,000 crowds estimation may be wrong,” he told a press conference at the Jalan Tun HS Lee police station.

He added that personnel at the police control centre were making double-calculations on the same crowds.

At around 2.50pm today the police tweeted that Stadium Merdeka was filled with about 80,000 people as at 2.45pm.

NONEAt around 3.30pm they posted a revision, claiming the crowd size was actually 40,000 to 45,000.
Malaysiakini reported that at least 100,000 turned up for Pakatan Rakyat’sPeople's Uprising Rally at Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur today.

The stadium was filled to the brim from the galleries to the field itself, while the vicinity outside the historic venue was similarly packed with supporters in yellow and green.
‘No one asked for press marshals’

Meanwhile Zainuddin said the police will investigate the organisers of the rally on several breaches of rules and regulations agreed before, allegedly committed during the rally.

NONEThese include the attendance of a crowd size exceeding 30,000, the presence of children at the rally, and certain placards being paraded that the police claimed were seditious.

Zainuddin added that no untoward incidents were reported during the rally, with the exception of two senior citizens who fainted in the stadium and fake explosives reported in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC).

On the reported absence of the much-toutedmedia marshals who were to provide assistance to journalists on duty covering the rally, the police explained that they were available but no media had asked for them.

Federal head of communications corporal Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, who was making his presentation, explained they had not received any applications from the media for the marshals

Therefore, he said, none of the 80 media marshals prepared for the rally were actually deployed on the ground.

NONE